Search Results for: la mia boutique may 2010

La Mia Boutique May 2010

Hooray! The first issue from my 6 month gift subscription from Magazine Cafe has arrived!!

The first feature of the magazine is nautical-themed (and not terribly subtly at that!). I absolutely love this tie-front teeshirt – I’ve got a ton of annoying “too short for a shirt yet too small for scraps” knit yardages so I’m quite keen to mix those up like they did here. That gajillion-gored skirt just scares me, though (yeah, those are all individually pieced!!).

I fell in love with this navy blue top from its tech drawing, but I’m actually less keen on it in real life. I think it’d look better without the central pleating, as it seems a bit over-designed. One thing to note, though, is that there are no shoulder seams – the top portion of the front actually wraps over from the back.

Idées Couture magazine May 2011

While we were in Toulouse during our French road trip, not only did the lovely Marie-Christine put us up for the night and cook us a wonderful dinner, but she had a gift for me, too – the latest edition of Idées Couture magazine!

If you’re not familiar with Idées Couture, it’s a monthly magazine that usually has a mix of knitting, crochet, and other crafts, and then one issue per year is a full translation of La Mia Boutique magazine. So even though this issue is the May 2011 Idées Couture, the designs and photos are all from the March 2010 La Mia Boutique magazine. Handily, this was just before my LMB subscription started, so these are all new designs to me!

To complicate matters, last year it was looking as though there was going to be a monthly French LMB translation, titled Ma Boutique, but now it appears that was just a one-off issue and they’re back to doing the yearly Idées Couture magazine instead. Confusing, I know!

The first feature was full of nautical styles that I can never really feel I can wear (for, err, obvious reasons). But I love this short, sailor-style jacket with the contrast topstitching. Clearly I wasn’t the only one, either, as I found out this was the cover image for the equivalent La Mia Boutique issue…

Post-coat winter sewing plans

Now that I’ve got my big winter coat sewing out of the way, I can turn my attentions to filling in a few gaps in my winter wardrobe. Sewing these things now means I can get another good 3-4 months of wear out of them before moving on to short sleeves and lighter jackets (no really, for the past few years we’ve had flurries and hard frosts in April or May).

So I’ve gathered together the patterns I’d most like to sew along with fabrics I’ve got in my stash that would help fill my wardrobe voids…

Starting at the top of this collage, we’ve got:

La Mia Boutique November 2010

With KnipMode pulling out all the stops for their fantastic new December issue, would La Mia Boutique rise to the challenge and present an issue full of wonderful, glitzy holiday wear?

Err, sadly, no. But let’s have a look anyway…

This minidress has some interesting pleating going on at the centre front, but it’s a detail I’ve seen countless times in RTW, and one that Burda published patterns for at least two years ago. But it’s still a nice, very wearable look, and hems can always be lengthened.

This knit cowl dress with shoulder yokes would look great in a luxe, drapey fabric like silk jersey…

KnipMode November 2010

Like the October La Mia Boutique, this issue arrived while I was away on our honeymoon so I’m only just now digesting it (nearly in time for the next issue to arrive any day now).

From the rugged outdoor feature, I really loved this pair of jeans. Mid-leg seams are always so slimming, the ankle zips look great on a tapered leg, and I just love Knip’s trouser details. The only thing I’m not so sure about are those vertical front pockets…

The tech drawing makes this jacket look quite ordinary, but I love it in the pique they’ve used here – it looks simultaneously 60s and current! And the skirt pattern it’s paired with would be a great basic in any fabric.

La Mia Boutique August 2010

After quite a few great issues of La Mia Boutique, it pains me to admit that this issue seems to be a throwback of the weird, not wonderful, old days of LMB. In fact, there’s not really any “Must Sews” for me in here at all, though a few of the designs have interesting pattern shapes when you take a closer look.

cover:

First up, an oddly-shaped maxi dress for those of us with really uneven hips… Even that ruffle shape is strange.

Here’s a rather nice tunic top with a large patch pocket, paired with a knit cardigan.

Seriously, WTF is this? An enormous maxi jumpsuit with windows for your navel and a neckline down past your waist? Really, who would wear this besides this model getting paid to wear it?

La Mia Boutique July 2010

No, you didn’t miss it – the June issue never arrived and is presumed missing in the post by now (so Magazine Cafe extended my subscription by a month to compensate). But that’s okay because June didn’t look that great in the online preview, and July is a fantastic issue!

I utterly love this bolero – mostly for its sleeves! You can see more easily in the layout diagram, but there’s a strip of fabric down the centre of the sleeve, with gathering on either side. I’d so take these sleeves and try them out on a shirt or other style of jacket, too.

This is actually a dress that just looks like a skirt and top – it’d be great for short lengths of stash fabrics with a nice belt…

Honing in on a jeans pattern

Even though I finally finished my pink trousers and lace teeshirt I mentioned last week, it’s been so hot and sweaty that I haven’t quite managed to do a photoshoot for them yet. Everything’s written so as soon as I do, you’ll get to see how great they are, honest!

I also managed to cut out a Kwik Sew exercise top, but not start sewing it yet, but what I really wanted to talk about today is the ongoing process in deciding which jeans pattern to use as a match for some heavyweight, non-stretch denim in my stash. So when I say that I’m “always thinking two projects ahead”, you now know it’s the truth!

If you remember back to my Spring Sewing Ideas, I had two different KnipMode jeans patterns that I thought I might use:

However, I found out soon after that the 2012 KnipMode one was for stretch wovens, which dis-counted it for this particular bout of jeans sewing.

The 2005 one looked very promising, but when I made a muslin of it the look was not good – ill-fitting in the waist and hips and way too wide in the legs. I’m sure I could fix it with plenty of time and patience, but with such an enormous pattern stash it just wasn’t worth pursuing further!

So I went back to the drawing board, otherwise known as my online pattern catalogue, and had a look through all the magazine issues I’d tagged “jeans”. This was a lot! So as I flipped through, I took screenshot segments of the ones I liked the look of, and renamed these files with the brand and pattern number, and shoved them in a special folder.

Happy 2012!

As is traditional, I like to take the opportunity at the start of a new year to look back on what I’ve sewn in the previous calendar year.

Somehow I keep getting more and more prolific each year… and it’s a bonus that you get to watch my hair grow as you skim downwards, ha!


(Click the above to en-biggen, or right-click here to open it in a new tab to get a better look

You’ll notice a few at the bottom that I haven’t shown you yet (seriously I only just finished the maternity maxidress with mere hours to go!), but all the rest can be seen by clicking the Gallery link on the top left of the site, then clicking through to the full article.

To make a few statistical analyses of my own, by my count:

  • I’ve sewn 7 dresses, 18 tops, 8 trousers, 6 skirts, 6 jackets/coats, 2 bras, a ton of panties, and other miscellanea (cat toys, boat stuff, mixer covers, shopping bags, etc!)

  • The number of times I’ve sewn with pattern companies: 15 Burda magazine, 9 KnipMode, 2 Mannequim, 3 Colette Patterns, 3 Jalie, 3 Lekala, 2 La Mia Boutique, 2 Patrones, 2 My Image magazine, 2 vintage, and 1 each from Paco Peralta, Hot Patterns, Vogue, and Christine Jonson (so that’s only one Big Four pattern the entire year! I’m oddly proud of that!)

  • I taught 2 sewing lessons to help 3 friends learn to sew!

  • I’ve sewn gifts for 8(!!) other people (and 3 cats!)

  • I was published this year, with my dress variation instructions in the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook! OMG!

KnipMode September 2011

The latest issue of KnipMode arrived last week, and included inside was a letter to the subscribers from the new editor. I could really only make out something about Marion magazine from my (admitted) inability to read Dutch, so I actually transcribed the whole letter through Google Translate to find out not much of anything beyond that she loved sewing from an early age, trained at fashion school, worked at Marion, and is excited to be joining the great team at KnipMode. Yawn. So no real news there at all…

I’m kinda nervous that she may try to make big changes and ruin a good thing, because 2010 was an awesome year for Knip, and these last two issues under her control have been largely mediocre.

But let’s take a look at my own favourites this month anyway…

The first pattern to greet me is for some great trousers with kneepad detail- hey! wait a minute – didn’t we just have these in the last issue??? I’ve put August’s on the right here for comparison:

This jacket with its cute peplum ruffles might be my favourite in this issue, but I don’t really wear blazer-type jackets all that often so I’m not terribly likely to make this if I’m being honest.